


Where the Watermelons Grow

by autumn_veela



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-21
Updated: 2009-05-21
Packaged: 2017-11-28 10:02:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumn_veela/pseuds/autumn_veela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p> A garden is not a substitute for communication.  </p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Watermelons Grow

Whenever Neville’s mad, he tends his vegetable patch. When he’s frustrated; he weeds, happy; he plants, tired; he waters. Charlie, who is quite perceptive about many things to do with Neville, noticed this long ago. He has no idea how everything stays alive with the relative neglect, but he puts it down to Neville’s unique brand of magic.  

When Charlie arrives home from Romania three hours late, he knows where he’ll find the man he loves. Neville is on his knees, head down, digging furiously amongst the watermelons. Many people have been fooled into thinking Neville is a placid lamb who wouldn’t say boo to a puffskein. Charlie only made that mistake once.

“Nev?”

The digging continues, faster than before, dirt beginning to fly pointedly in Charlie’s direction.

“I’m really sorry. One of them was sick, I couldn’t just leave.”

Neville didn’t need to speak for Charlie to know what he was thinking. _Yes you could. That’s why they hired your replacement._

“It was Bogdana. She doesn’t respond so well to the others.”

_None of them do_.

“I know- I’m so sorry. It won’t happen again.”

_That’s what you said last time_. _And the time before that_.

“I didn’t plan to do this. I don’t know what to say besides sorry.”

Silence, and the digging stops. Neville picks up a recently harvested watermelon and rises. When he turns, Charlie feels a pang of guilt at the sight of the clenched jaw and tight lips.

Neville starts toward him and there is a brief moment of panic, terror that the watermelon is about to become a mortal weapon. Instead, he pushes past, heading towards the cottage. Charlie decides to wait, to give him a minute. He knows where the conversation will be headed that night, and he’s not looking forward to it.

The sun’s setting by the time Charlie is driven inside by the wind. Neville has supper on, and he turns from the stove as Charlie enters the kitchen. “I was going to eat without you.”

“Don’t blame you. You probably should.”

The baked beans are being poured over toast, Neville’s odd accompaniment of a green salad already waiting in a bowl. The makeshift meal is eaten without a word, and it is only over a piece of watermelon that Neville finally cracks.

“I’m not sure I can do this anymore.”

It’s not what Charlie was expecting to hear, and the words slice through him like the severing curse he took in the war. He doesn’t know what to say, but he certainly has no more appetite for the dripping fruit in his hand. He glances upwards, only to find Neville’s glaring eyes on him, the intensity making him cower inside. The man did not lead an army of schoolchildren into battle for nothing.

Charlie’s head drops into his hands as he tries to think, to put the pieces together and come up with an answer to this problem. Time is not on his side, though, as Neville’s chair scrapes and footsteps leave the kitchen before Charlie has even thought of a word.

There are a few minutes of sounds from the bedroom. Drawers opening, then slamming shut. The click of a suitcase closing. The unmistakable sound of the floo.

Half a bottle of firewhiskey later, Charlie gratefully passes out.

~    ~    ~

Charlie is at loss as to what to do with the garden. He has no idea how to take care of it, and although Ron has passed on the question to Neville there has been no response. The leaves are beginning to brown and curl. The plants need water, but he can’t bring himself within sight of the watermelon patch.

After little thought, Charlie decides to ignore them. If they so badly want to give up on him, they will.    


End file.
